Details on Proposition 89

We Have a Crisis of Corruption in Our Government

Lobbyists and special interests contribute millions to politicians who pass their pork barrel projects and tax loopholes – costing taxpayers like you billions.

Prop 89: Politicians Accountable to Voters Instead. Its Three Powerful Components Are:

1) Strict contribution limits

Prop 89 ends the fundraising madness with constitutional limits so regular voters aren’t drowned out by big money.

• Bans contributions from lobbyists and state contractors
• Limits contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals to state candidates
• Limits corporation donations to initiatives to $10,000

2) Clean Money public financing of political campaigns

Prop 89 levels the playing field so new candidates can win on their ideas, not because of the money they raise.

• Candidates who agree to spending limits and to take no private contributions qualify for public funding
• $5 contributions from voters required to prove viability
• Clean candidates receive enough to run competitive campaigns. They can't raise money beyond public funds

3) Tough disclosure and enforcement for politicians

Prop 89 stops candidates from hiding behind negative ads and punishes politicians who violate the law.

• Makes wealthy self-funded candidates disclose the amount of personal funds they will spend
• Publicly financed candidates must engage in debates
• Imposes mandatory jail time and provides for removal from office of candidates who break the law.

Full details about Prop 89

Bottom line:

Prop 89 Makes Elections About Ideas Not Money

That’s why trusted groups representing your interests like AARP California, League of Women Voters of California, California Common Cause, Consumer Federation of California, Sierra Club California, the California Clean Money Campaign, and nearly 300 other organizations support Prop 89.

And why lobbyists and special interests — like big oil, drug companies, insurance firms, HMOs and some unions — don’t.

Get Out the Vote

At this point, one of the most powerful things you can do to help pass Proposition 89 is to use our online tool to email your friends.

Get Out the Vote

Mobilize for Prop 89 This Weekend!
Find a meeting or rally to join this Saturday or Sunday.

Join Your Local Phone Bank!
Join volunteers calling voters and asking them to vote Yes on Prop 89. Free food and likely voters are waiting for you!

Down to the Wire: Help Get Out the Vote!

Clean money activists are joining students, nurses and other community activists to clean up California this weekend!. So whether your bag is walking, talking, singing, standing, eating or sweeping, we have an action for you.

Mobilize for Prop 89 This Weekend!
Find a meeting or rally to join this Saturday or Sunday.

Join Your Local Phone Bank!
Join volunteers calling voters and asking them to vote Yes on Prop 89. Free food and likely voters are waiting for you!

New Batman Video

All politics is money?

Maplight:

Today MAPLight.org, dedicated to illuminating money and politics, announced the results of its new study "Local Politics, Remote Money." According to the study, 78 percent of the money for California legislative races is provided by funders outside legislators' districts.

"It's election season, and California Assemblymembers and Senators are crisscrossing their districts, as they should be, looking for votes. It's just astonishing, then, that a whopping three out of every four dollars in funding comes from out-of- district," said Dan Newman, executive director of MAPLight.org.

The legislator with the highest out-of-district amount was Assemblymember Cindy Montanez from California's 39th District with 99 percent of campaign dollars coming from outside her district.

"Legislators depend on campaign contributions," said Newman. "They seek these funds anywhere they can. When the vast majority is generated from outside the district they represent, the voters -- their constituents -- must wonder if local interests are being trumped by outside interests."

When 99% of the money is coming from out of district, you really have to wonder if the voters are being heard. In California, the difference between being heard or not is how much big money is spent, not whether it is spent. If you aren't contributing piles of money, are you being heard?

Carl Pope on Proposition 89

Check out this new video with Carl Pope:



You can browse all videos at Proposition 89 on YouTube

When money is bidding it is an auction

Malinda Markowitz op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News:

It's time we took California off the auction block and put the voters back in charge.

Wealthy interests write big checks to politicians and get favors in return in the form of corporate tax breaks, pork barrel projects, legislation or regulation and vetoes. Everywhere you look, regular Californians lose. Higher charges at the pump, inflated HMO premiums, contaminated food, rising chronic asthma rates from polluted air, shoddy products, inadequately funded schools because of corporate tax loopholes that divert money that could be used for education.

With Proposition 89, voters can restore balance to our political system. Even critics, such as the Mercury News editorial board, acknowledged that ``the pay-to-play money machine in Sacramento is warping politics, values and public policy.''

Proposition 89 would make politicians work for the voters, not campaign donors. It would reduce how much corporations, unions and individuals could give to candidates, ban contributions from lobbyists, and provide limited public funds to qualified candidates who rejected private contributions. Lawbreakers could be removed from office or jailed.

Proposition 89 also would limit corporations from spending more than $10,000 on initiatives, a provision some, like the Mercury News, dislike. But this election -- already the most expensive in state history -- illustrates why Proposition 89 is needed. Oil and tobacco companies have alone spent about $144 million on just two ballot measures. Last fall, it was drug companies spending $83 million on two initiatives.

The meta-story of California's 2006 election is the record spending, which owns the dynamics of almost every political decision.

Assemblymember Mark Leno on Proposition 89

Ventura County Star

The Ventura County Star supports Proposition 89

The Star supports Proposition 89 because we believe it will help control out-of-control campaign fundraising, which taints the Legislature. It also allows more people to run for public office, as has been demonstrated in states such as Maine and Arizona, where similar measures were approved. Among its supporters is the League of Women Voters of California.

Star state bureau chief Timm Herdt captured the scene perfectly in an August article, "Lawmakers rake in end-of-session cash," which described state legislators working overtime raising campaign money just before the legislative season ended, at the time they were voting on hundreds of bills. Most fundraising events were breakfasts, lunches and dinners, attended by contributors with checks for $500, $1,000 or $3,000.

Raising money this way is a fact of life for politicians of all stripes, but it takes away valuable time from legislating and certainly creates the perception that lawmakers are beholden to big donors.

It is a perception, if not a fact, that Proposition 89 would address by changing the way political campaigns for state candidates and state ballots only are funded. [...]

Proposition 89 is needed to end what amounts to legalized bribery in Sacramento. The Star encourages a yes vote.

Last week, Timm Herdt has a great article:

Imagine a world in which politicians didn't have to sweet talk special-interest groups in order to raise money to get elected, in which the support of a waitress would be just as valuable as the support of a CEO or a union president, in which a truck driver would have as good an opportunity to run for political office as a lawyer.

Imagine also a world in which the arrival of campaign season didn't mean that it was time for wave after wave of incessant, insulting and cynical television commercials about ballot propositions, paid for with tens of millions of dollars in big-business contributions.

This is the world envisioned by supporters of Proposition 89, the initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot designed to fundamentally change the way political campaigns are conducted in California.

It proposes to change races for public office by creating a pot of tax money that candidates for state office could tap into if they agreed to reject private campaign contributions, and it proposes to end the ballot proposition wars as we know them by limiting to $10,000 the amount that any corporation could give to an initiative campaign.

Supporters call their plan a cure for corruption.

Indeed.

Election Victory in 2006

Matier and Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Forget ratings -- TV gets huge payoff from elections

When all is said and done, the biggest winner in California's election won't be the Democrats or the Republicans, but TV -- which is expected to rake in an estimated $300 million in political ad sales. [...]

With an estimated $210 million going into the initiative fights -- and deep-pocket clients such as big oil and tobacco ready to shell out whatever it takes -- the sky is the limit.

For example, [Sheri] Sadler recently paid $2,200 for a 30-second Brown ad on the 5 p.m. local newscast in Los Angeles. Had she been buying the same spot for an initiative, the cost would have been $22,000.

"They are just loving it,'' [Paul] Kinney said of the TV stations.

No on Proposition 89 Ad

FTCR:

"If you are pregnant or nursing, or could become pregnant, are taking any other medications, are ill or could become ill at any point in your life, are in school or could attend school in the future, have a job, pay taxes, live in a home, drive a car, or have friends or family you care about, you should know that voting No on 89 isn't for you. Talk with your family nurse for more information on how Yes on 89 can heal California."

Us and Them

Supporting Prop. 89	Funding opposition to Prop. 89
California Nurses Association	Chevron Corporation
League of Women Voters of California	Occidental Oil & Gas
AARP California	State Farm Insurance Automobile Insurance
Sierra Club California	Southern California Edison
United Teachers Los Angeles	Mercury General Insurance
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights	Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (drug companies lobbying arm)
California Common Cause	Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
California Clean Money Campaign	Exxon Mobil Corporation
California Church IMPACT	Blue Cross of California
California National Organization for Women	GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceutical)
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa	California Bankers Association PAC
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer	California Chamber of Commerce
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom	BP Corporation North America Inc.
Congress of California Seniors	California Hospitals Committee on Issues
Lutheran Office of Public Policy	Safeco Insurance Company
Consumer Federation of California	United Healthcare Services, Inc. (HMO)
Public Citizen	Great American Life Insurance Company
California Teamsters	Sempra Energy (oil and gas)
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry	Farmers Insurance Group
Gray Panthers of California	Zenith Insurance Company
Service Employees International Union	AT&T
California Retired Teachers Association	The Hartford (Hartford Life)
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi	Travelers Indemnity Company
California Faculty Association	Waste Management & Affiliates
Latino National Congreso	California Teachers Association
United Food & Commercial Workers	Aetna, Inc.
California Black Chamber of Commerce	21st Century Insurance
Senior Action Network	Fireman’s Fund Insurance
Consumers for Auto Reliability & Safety	California Motor Car Dealers Association
CalPIRG	California Business Properties Association
San Francisco Board of Supervisors	Shell Oil Company
Rainforest Action Network	Sprint Nextel
South Bay Labor Council	Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company
Southern California Federation of Scientists	ConocoPhillips (oil)
Korean Resource Center	California Building Industries Assn. PAC
Marin County Board of Supervisors	Anheiser-Busch Companies Inc.
UNITE HERE Local 2	California Restaurant Association PAC
Filipino Am. Community Empowerment	California Independent Petroleum Assn.
Public Campaign	Marriott International Inc.
La Opinion	Prudential Financial
Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums	San Diego Lodging Industry Assn. PAC
William C. Velasquez Institute	AFLAC Inc.
Democracy Matters	Sheraton Hotels & Resorts
Greenlining Institute	Watson Land Company
Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers Co-founder	National Association of Industrial and Office Properties PAC
Californians for Quality Education	Blue Shield of California
United Farm Workers	Republic Indemnity Company of America
Endangered Habitats League	Macy’s West
Greenpeace USA	California Farm Bureau Federation
Berkeley Board of Education	Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Co.
United Auto Workers Local 2865	Smurfit-Stone Packaging Containers
Oakland City Council	California Forestry Association
National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles chapter	Association of California Insurance Companies Issues Committee
San Fernando Valley Interfaith	California Retail Assn. Issues Committee
Planning and Conservation League	California Grocers Association PAC
Alameda County Labor Council	Federal Insurance Committee
Palo Alto City Council	Pardee Homes
Progressive Christians Uniting	Pacific Life (insurance)
United Steel Workers Local 675	Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, Inc.
Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council	Wine Institute California PAC
Environment California	The Doctor’s Company PAC (insurance)
Mexican American Political Association	Johnson Machinery
Women For: Orange County	George Joseph, CEO, Mercury Insurance
National Association of Social Workers	Ace American Insurance Company
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Locals 332 and 569	Insurance Brokers & Agents West Inc. California Advocacy Fund
TheRestofUs.org	Cypress Land Company
California Democratic Council	Western Growers PAC
Albany City Council	Conexant Systems Inc. (telecommunications)
Berkeley Federation of Teachers	Employers Insurance Group
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance	Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.
Courage Campaign	Farmers Employees & Agents PAC
Environmental Health Coalition	Kramer-Wilson Co. Insurance Services
University Council of the American Federation of Teachers	Consulting Engineers & Land Surveyors Issues Fund
Social Justice Center of Marin	Granite Construction Inc.
Fresno Co. Democratic Central Committee	Calif. Beer & Beverages Distributors PAC
Progressive Jewish Alliance	Baron Real Estate
Woodland Democratic Club	Distilled Spirits Council
Green Party of Orange County	Atlas Hotels
Santa Clarita Unitarian-Universalist Church	Qualcomm Incorporated
Berkeley City Council	Disney Worldwide Services Inc.
Simi Valley-Moorpark Democratic Club	Miller Brewing Company

Chevron

From FTCR:

Chevron's record- breaking third-quarter profit puts the lie to its threats that California oil production would decline if Proposition 87, the Clean Energy Initiative, were passed in the Nov. 7 election, said the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

San Ramon-based Chevron crowed today over its surprising quarterly 40% profit jump to $5 billion. Then, when talking to analysts about its record-breaking wealth, a Chevron executive complained that a proposed clean-energy initiative in California could, at current profit levels, cost Chevron "on the order of $200 million." In a similar vein, the Chevron-funded ads against Proposition 87, the clean energy measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, threaten that this cost will make oil companies cut back on pumping oil in California and import "foreign oil" instead. Given Chevron's high profits from its California operations, that argument is false, said FTCR. [...]

FTCR noted that Chevron has thought nothing of pouring at least $46 million in political contributions into California's current election cycle alone. That includes $44 million on ballot initiatives, the bulk of it against Proposition 87. Chevron is also the largest funder of the campaign against Proposition 89, the Clean Elections Initiative, which would diminish the political power of Big Oil and other immensely wealthy lobbies in Sacramento.

Chevron's third-quarter profit percentage increase beat all the other major oil companies in part because of its major presence in California. During much of the summer gasoline price spike, which topped out at over $3.38 in the state, Californians were paying up to 50 cents more per gallon than the national average. Chevron pumps an average of 212,000 barrels of crude per day in California, according to federal data, much of it to supply its two California refineries, which process an average of 503,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly 25% of the state total, according to the California Energy Commission. If even half of that crude oil were made into gasoline, the resulting 50-cent a gallon "Chevron tax" on California motorists this summer would have been up to $5 million a day, about $150 million a month, said FTCR ( 21 gallons of gasoline refined per barrel of crude, 10 million gallons total, times 50 cents).

Time for 89.

Get on the Bus

CNA is (literally) rolling out six mobile phone bank buses, with 24 lines a piece and wrapped in signage. This will allow the ability to drive to hospitals for shift changes and let nurses easily phone bank before or after shifts.

The San Francisco Chronicle's John Wildermuth wrote:

Hit the road with the nurses for Prop. 89

With modern politics now tied to focus groups, tracking polls, TV attack ads and the other oh-so-serious -- and often oh-so-boring -- accouterments of California elections, there's almost no time for good, old-fashioned political stunts that at least added a little life and personality to the voting business in years past.

The exception: The California Nurses Association, which is out on the hustings backing Proposition 89, the campaign finance initiative. CNA members on Wednesday afternoon opened the union's "Get On the Bus," campaign, which will put nurses on six colorfully decorated buses driving across the state promoting Prop. 89. [...]

Earlier this month, it was street theater in Sacramento, as Prop. 89 backers joined a Jack Abramoff impersonator to string a million dollars in phony money from a lobbyist's office to the headquarters of the California Chamber of Commerce, which is opposed to the measure.

They've also brought a guy dressed as Batman to a number of their events and even projected a 40-foot "Bat-signal" on a building where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was having a fundraiser.

They're also probably the only campaign to have its own rap song the three-and-a-half minute "About Time for 89," written and performed by Colette Washington: "It's about time for Prop. 89, what's going on in Sac Town is blowin' my mind..."

Check out a new video where Colette performs at the launch of Get on the Bus. Big Pharma and Big Oil and Big Money may be able to spend whatever it takes to preserve the perverse status quo, but creativity and hard work are our slingshot in this David vs. Goliath battle. Get on Board!

Clean Money Beats Dirty Dough

$2,888,110,163,000 fighting grassroots in CA

Those of us fighting for Proposition 89 (corporate limits and public financing) in California are up against...$2.8 trillion in special interests.

The 36 major companies financing our opponents big consultants have $2.8 trillion in total assets, reported $73 billion in profits last year, and their top 155 executives received $959 million in total compensation, an average of $6.1 million per executive.

Is there any doubt why they like the system where big money can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to own California politics? This cycle has already crossed the half a billion dollar mark and you don't reach a record like that with $20 donations on actblue.

If you didn't make the above list, Buck the System Now and join up to help pass Prop 89.

Proposition 89 reduces how much corporations, unions or individuals can give to candidates, bars contributions to candidates by lobbyists and government contractors, and limits corporations to spending no more than $10,000 on ballot initiatives. It supports candidates who reject private fundraising with a set limit of public funds. If politicians or lobbyists break the law, they can be fined, removed from office, or jailed.

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It doesn't have to be as it has been

Timm Herdt has a great article in today's Ventura County Star:

Imagine a world in which politicians didn't have to sweet talk special-interest groups in order to raise money to get elected, in which the support of a waitress would be just as valuable as the support of a CEO or a union president, in which a truck driver would have as good an opportunity to run for political office as a lawyer.

Imagine also a world in which the arrival of campaign season didn't mean that it was time for wave after wave of incessant, insulting and cynical television commercials about ballot propositions, paid for with tens of millions of dollars in big-business contributions.

This is the world envisioned by supporters of Proposition 89, the initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot designed to fundamentally change the way political campaigns are conducted in California.

It proposes to change races for public office by creating a pot of tax money that candidates for state office could tap into if they agreed to reject private campaign contributions, and it proposes to end the ballot proposition wars as we know them by limiting to $10,000 the amount that any corporation could give to an initiative campaign.

Supporters call their plan a cure for corruption.

Everyone realizes the current system is broken, but it doesn't have to stay that way. Proposition 89 levels the playing field and allows campaigns that are judged by ideas, not decided like an auction.